Friday, July 7, 2006

WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE READING THIS?!?!?
GO SEE PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: DEAD MANS CHEST! GO NOW! GO GO GO GO GO GO!!! RAPIDO!!! AVANTE!!!! GO NOW FATBOY!!!!!

GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOO!!!

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   Y'ARR!!! Its C'apn Dr.Phil McNinja Darke Angel...
so Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Mans Chest was released in cinemas across the U.K YESTERDAY...and i didnt go to see it. i was, instead, helping to clear my grandads garden of weeds and junk. and i got paid 12 british pounds to do it too. not bad for two hours work. £6 an hour, not taxed. (thats about 8 and a bit dollars an hour not taxed) so that was good. and i might go and see Pirates today. we shall see.


Its been a quiet week all in all. hope you guys all enjoyed 4TH July. Myself? I didnt do anything...at all. *shrugs* oh well.

Lessee, what have i done this week. I have finished that stock check i was doing on my repotoire of fictional characters i have created. Still unclear if people wanna see it or not. (read two posts down for details). I booked my Driving Theory Test online, and have to go up to sidcup (which is a nearby town) to do it in a week or two. it should be fairly easy, then i can focus on actually taking my driving test.
aaannnnnddd i ...no thats pretty much it. hmm.

A lot of people have been changing their sites drastically recently. and a lot of people have been wondering why i dont change mine. and one person (subtley indicates Cee-Cee) was practically thrown when she thought i HAD changed my site. LOL. i luv ya really cee. ^^ Im not going to be changing this site anytime soon. I might change the BG pic from time to time, but that would be about it. I have been with MyO since the beginning, and this "old-school" layout works just fine with me. ^^
also, yeah, i realise im still just an otakuite, but i think it has something to do with the fact that i never log out of MyO. it doesnt bother me. i know im a legend. lol.

i got a few projects lined up which i really should get to work on, so hopefully we'll be seeing some of them soon. ^^ maybe a CDD or two. i ve also had a cool idea for an article, but its all hush hush at the mo. shhhhh!

Last Night at cadets was not too bad actually. We didnt do much, but i was in a good mood, so things went okay. I also got asked to deliver this plushy dog to somebody. Heres the thing: At the danson festival last weekend, we had a competition where you had to guess the name of the plushy dog, and whoever got it right wins the dog. Well we got a winner, and we've been trying to contact the person who won. and they want us to deliver the dog. So i got given this plushy dog last night to deliver, but of course its like 10 pm and nobody wants a smelly cadet on their doorstep at 10pm trying to give em a plushy dog, so i had to take it home. BUT, i had nowhere to put it. Luna's underseat compartment was full and it wouldnt fit in my bag. so i ended up putting him inside my biker jacket with his head poking out the top, just underneath mine. im guessing it looked kinda weird having this plushy dog head poking out underneath my helmet. ^^;;;

Tonight my friend Nic has invited me to go to a nightclub with him and a few friends up London. I decided to go despite nightclubs not really being my thing. It should be an interesting night. and a late one too. We're meeting at 10PM and probably gonna get back in the wee hours of the morning...^^;;;

welp, thats it from me today. I hope y'all have a great weekend.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY: "Facts are stupid things"- Ronald Reagan (and please note that Ronald Reagan was a President of the United States a while back. Notice a trend? Also, where else in the world can a movie actor become a president or govenor? only in america folks...)
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Tuesday, July 4, 2006

   where hash everyone gone?
only two comments...huh...


anways, no real reason for me updating today, other then to wish my american friends (which is pretty much all of you who visit regularly) a happy Independance Day. hope you enjoy the fireworks.


t'otherwise, if ya really wanna know whats up with my life, read the post below. mmmmkay?

toodles.
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Sunday, July 2, 2006

   Well Good Morning Sunshine!
okies, this might be a quick update, or it might be a detailed one. depends on certain thingsssssss....

okies, first off, the art showcase thing i went to on friday with me mate Nic was pretty cool, and i gotta meet up with some of my old friends who dont see that often cuz they're usually working or at University. and i also told Nic of my trip to Tennessee and he was like crazy jealous of the friendships i've made. so there you are my freinds from Tennessee...we're so close that even my best mate is jealous. go figure. ^^;

this weekend i've been volunteering my services (or rather "forced to take part") in the Danson Festival which is essentially a great big fair. Im there with the cadets putting face paint on the lil kiddies and trying to recruit new members for the squadron. I was there yesterday and it was sorching hot. The sun was blazing down and my face is a wee bit red because of it. today i shall be wearing sun cream. ^^;

Otherwise thats pretty much it for my life. When i got home last night, me and my little brother watched the first "Pirates of the Carribean" movie on video. ^^ getting prepared for the release of Captain Jack's next adventure, released in cinemas all across England on THURSDAY. i know a hella lotta people are looking forward to it. i might try and see if i can see it on thrusday, cuz whilst it is expensive, it should be fairly empty, cuz most of the kids should still be at school...it t'aint the summer hols here yet! ha!

Still looking on the job front. *sigh*


Im currently working on a project in my spare time too, and i was wondering whether or not i should post it online. Basically, about once a year I take what i like to call a "Stock Check", an inventory of sorts of every single character I've created for various fictions and illustrations. See, back when i started writing stories and drawing pictures to go with them, i only used to have like 6 characters...now i have somewhere in the region of 30 main characters, a huge selection of supporting characters and 11 mecha designs. so normally i just jot down all the characters and mechas, note which series they're from and whether or not im gonna continue writing for them on the fiction front.
However this year, with the substantial increase in the number of characters in the last couple of years, i figured it would be a good idea to write down a report of EVERY fiction and illustration concept i have come up with since my first series way back when, and include a brief description of each character and mech and the world in which they exist. Course, i didnt realise how big this was gonna be, even if i keep it brief.

Anyway, its a permenant record of all my prjects to date, including my Chibi Darke comics. What i wanted to ask you guys is: do you wanna read it? its not finished yet, but will be probably tonight or tomorrow, but it is already 8 pages long (times new roman, size 12 font) and will probably extend to about 10-12 pages. If you do wanna read it, i'll post it up in managable chunks, or else i'll post it up on DeviantArt in its entirety and you can read it at your leisure. its up to you guys. a lil insight to the workings of my imagination and the many other characters that reside within my head. ^^;;

welp, thats it from me today. I shall update some point this week. probably a couple of times. nehoo, see ya round.

Toodles.
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

   ROCK SHALL LIBERATE THE WORLD!!!
hey guys. yesh im updating again. so there. :p

Monday was, as expected, boring and pointless, so im not going to go into detail here. the only real highlight of the evening was that Kenny, a freind of mine who used to be a member of the squadron, was there too, and i actually like this person (compared to most of the cadets) so i had a good time catching up.


Otherwise its been fairly quiet around here.

BUT

last night, we went up to London to see "We Will Rock You" the musical based on the Smash Hit songs of Queen! it was really cool, lots special effects and great humour, and of course, lots of loud reveberating Rock Music. ^^
Essentially the story is set in the future, where all instuments are outlawed and the only music is computer generated, with lots of talentless "boy bands and girl bands and girl bands with boys in them that look like girls" etc crowd the charts, all run by the evil Global Soft Corporation. Yet, one boy is having these dreams, where bright lights and the roar of a crowd fills his brain and strange phrases like "Scaramouche" and "Galileo Figaro" occur to him almost constantly. It is his destiny to join the rebel group "The Bohemians" who's sole purpose is to bring back the songs predicted in the ancient texts, the ones that will bring back to life the REAL music. And the young man known as the "dreamer" as to find the legendary Axe left behind by the titans known as "Queen" and perform at the Stadium of Champions to liberate the world from the corporate produced rubbish that has been filling the charts since the advent of something once known as "Pop Idol"...

thats essentially it. The actors where very good, costume designs were well thought out and as this is a live show, the music is also live and VERY loud! the story got a bit silly at times and towards the end it practically drops out completely, but as the audience, you dont really care cuz you're so caught up at listening to your favourite tracks from Queen. It was a fantastic night out and i loved evey minute of it.

so yeah, thats what i did with myself last night. I also managed to get up to where my dad works before hand (up on the 25th floor of CentrePoint Tower) which is really cool, you can practically see all of London from up there. For a major captial city, London doesnt have a lot of skyscrapers, most of the buildings are built low to the ground. therefore, when you do get the chance to get high in the air, its very easy to tell the lay of the land and see most of your favourite places.

Today and tomorrow are going to be fairly quiet days (unless i get a call about a job or something) and on Friday, im going to an Art Showcase at the college where my friend Nic has been doing his Foundation Course in Art and Design. Some of his work will be on display as well as the other students. So i'll be meeting with him, and several of his other friends too, so it promises to be a good day out. ^^

welp, i hope you have a good week y'all and i'll try to update again this weekend if not sooner.

toodles
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Monday, June 26, 2006

welcome to Darke's post. This has been estalished as part of the Darke-will-try-to-post-more-often Project.
hi peeps.


really it would make more sense for me to post tomorrow when theres a break in my life, but i can always post tomorrow as well. ^-^

its been a slow week since i last updated (ignoring the MST3K post below)

in fact, i really cant think of anything significant that happened. i had a interesting topic of conversation that i was gonna discuss, but i uh...forgot what it was. heh. ^^;;

i am still jobless, but that might be changing soon. i'll keep you gys posted with the details.

the RAF never called me back. the recruitment people are useless.

Friday i was gonna just watch anime or something, but i got distracted by Youtube and its collection of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 stuff. that show is brilliant, they dont do comedy like that anymore. ^^;;; you can see an example of what i watched in the last post, if you havnt already.

basically most of whats happened to me recently happened over the weekend.
Saturday i started drawing a new picture based on a manga i downloaded of the internet. i completed it yesterday. i would have completed it on saturday, but i ended up watching "Meet Joe Black" on TV. i really like that film, its very good. its funny, but also moving and thoughtful. i especially like the part where you see Brad Pitts body get bounced off about three cars. LOL.


Sunday was okay i guess. i eventually decided i was going to go to this stupid cadet drill competition (it was "compulsary"after all), so i informed the Warrent Officer that i was going to meet them there at the competition site, cuz it was easier for me to go there straight from home then it was for me to go to our squadron site, then get transported to the drill comp site (which is just around the corner from where i live), then have to go all the way back to the squadron to retrieve my bike and go all the way home again. I told her this, to her face, and even explained why. So why was it when they turned up she had a look of surprise, and annoyance on her face? granted, i did know we where supposed to be at the squadron for 10 AM to practise for tonights Awards Evening, and to practise the drill for the competiton, but i know it all already and couldn't be bothered to waste my petrol and my time. but i HAD told her i was going to meet her there, and she acted ike i hadn't. whatever. basically me and this other cadet got dropped from the drill squad so it would make what was called a "full squad" that is to say a sqaud without any gaps in the formation, which was fine for me. i didnt particularly want to do the Uniform Inspection and Drill sequence anyway. so that was good. but i am slightly pissed that the Warrent Officers never listen to the NCOs. barely anyway.

and tonight we have (oh joy of joys(!) ) the awards night. which means we have to put on our uber smart uniform on again, and do a lot of marching and a lot of other well boring stuff. they want to put us in our Jumpers too, like it isnt hot enough in just our shirts and berets as is. >.<
and im also getting an award tonight! You're not supposed to know who's getting what before the night, but i sneaked a peek at the Order of Events. Im getting something called the "Army Assosiation" award or something. I dont know why. its not like i've done anything to earn it.
there's also an award for "Best NCO as voted by the Cadets" and im pretty sure it wont be me who's getting it. LMAO. oh and i gotta remember to mark out a minutes silence for some guy who died recently. *sigh*

sorry to have bored you with cadet stuff again. i'll let you guys know how it goes. im gonna go have breakfast now and then try to find something productive to do...i think my mum doesnt have to go to work today, so she's gonna be breathing down my neck all day. ah well.

no comics or nuthin. gomen.

toodles.


MOVIE QUOTE:

"Don't blow smoke up my ass...you'll ruin the autopsy" - Bill Parrish (as played by Anthony Hopkins) "Meet Joe Black"
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Friday, June 23, 2006

   WARNING: WATCHING THE FOLLOWING VIDEO MAY LEAVE YOU DEAD FROM LAUGHING SO HARD




ah...i feel so much better now. *wipes tears from eyes*
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

   man oh man...i shouldnt stay up to the wee hours of the morning...
H’okay, we finally get this thing finished. This is the last part of my most amazing Malaysian adventures. REMEMBER: check out the alt text to see interesting titbits about my adventures.


BUT FIRST!!!!!

Today is the day marking 18 years of life for one of my closest and bestest friends. So I just wanna say HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISSY!!! I made you a lil pressie.

CLICKY HERE TO SEE YOUR BIRTHDAY PREZZIE!!!

I woulda posted it up here, but photobucket is being all temperamental with me and my comics lately, so you’ll have to make do with a link… gomen. Hope ya have a good one though.

ALRIGHT THEN. LETS DO IT!!! (please bear in mind this is gonna be hella long)

I was a part of Team ALPHA 4 and this was the final phase, PHASE 3, the environmental phase. I was going to Danum Valley, a research centre which contains one of the few areas of natural rainforest left in Malaysia. There’s not a lot left in Malaysia as it stands. Most of it has been turned into Palm Oil Plantations now, and the earth will not be able to recover what its lost any time soon.

I don’t have any proper pics of my group this time round other than this one, and it aint much cop.



In this group we had Myself, Jane (again, for the third time…poor girl), Jenna, Carmel, Reed (from Colorado USA), Paul, Mike, Kate, and three useless and annoying people. Our Project Managers were the totally awesome Merv and Nick, who were hilarious and awesome fun.

This is pretty much what Danum Valley looks like…




Luckily the facilities there were better then the ones in the other environmental project and we were fortunate enough to have a proper roof over our heads, proper toilets, running water and even *gasp* electricity…




Of course, despite the raised decking and the food being locked away tightly, this didn’t deter “Yogi” the freakin Sunbear from coming at night and EATING OUR FRIGGIN FOOD! Seriously, there was this bear and it had huge claws that could tear holes in aluminium and it ransacked our kitchens several nights and ate most of our chocolate and sugar and drank our orange cordial. Darn bear. Not that we were gonna mess with it or anything. ^^;;;;


And that’s not the only wildlife we ran into. We also had encounters with “Porky” the gigantic bearded pig and these guys.



Joe the Lizard



Fireants. Damn those buggers hurt when they bite…



And even Orang-utans! Did you know Orang-utan is actually a Malaysian word? It means “Jungle People”. There see. You live and learn. (then you die and forget it all)

And occasionally (not very often at all in fact) we had one of these



He was big. ^^;;;

Well, the main thing we were doing at Danum Valley was building bridges and trail blazing so that scientists could get to new parts of the conservation area to study stuff.

I was mainly tasked on bridges, which meant I had to carry a lot of ironwood.



Ironwood is really really heavy. Like, so heavy, it’s the only wood in the world that doesn’t float. And we had to carry it a good kilometre or so into the jungle, cuz that was the only way we could get it there. Me and some of the guys made it into a competition and were practically running down the trail with these planks of heavy wood on our shoulders…we managed to do 8 loads in one day (that’s 16 k...8 trips to the site, 8 trips back to get more wood) ^-^ it felt good.

Here are some pics of the bridges we built…





And here are a few inscriptions we put into the bridges (bearing in mind we had no paintbrushes to do this with)



Translated, that says “Appreciate our Nature”



See the alt text for an explanation of that one



Funny story with that last one. We were carving it into the bridge when this HUGE snake shot out of the jungle onto the path and LOOKED AT US! Then it buggered off…scared the pants off of me though…

Of course, it wasn’t all work. We had lotsa fun playing football and volleyball against the rangers, we met with various scientists who told us lots of cool stuff (like this German scientist who showed us ants that explode when you annoy them!) and a lot of important stuff as well, like the bleak future of the rainforests and how we cant ever expect to see it re-grow within our lifetimes…

We also had many trips to various pools.



The not so aptly named Jacuzzi pool. We had people in our group who thought these might be actual pools with tiles and heating and stuff. Morons.



The Rhino pools…eventually the trail we built will lead to a bridge that will cross the river to these pools. At the moment, it’s an hour and a half trek.

And on Mike’s birthday, we went to a waterfall, which was okay, but there were lotsa other little pools we could dive into and stuff. We had a lot of fun that day.



We also went to this observation tree…



The platform is 50 metres in the air. To put that into perspective, that’s just a tad smaller then THREE Freedom Gundams standing on each others shoulders.



Gives you vertigo just by looking at it, don’t it?

And we also went on what was called the Coffin Trail. Why was it called that?



Cuz there was a buncha coffins at the end of it.

We also did a hundred other things, like have a party, have a curry night, played badminton (with insults flying faster then the shuttlecock), fitted random words into our radio reports like “count of monte cristo” and “12x12 ft steel cage”, and started up a leech league whereby you gave yourself points every time a leech bit you. The more intimate the area, the higher the points. Double points for internal bites. (in mouth, on genitals etc…) Another game was Camp Cluedo where you were given a weapon ( a bootlace or a water bottle or a torch or something random) and a location (like in the kitchen or by the football pitch) and somebody who you had to “kill” by giving them the item in the location specified. Of course, everybody becomes suspicious of everybody else, and paranoia runs high when people ask you to pick up stuff or get them something.

The PMs, Merv and Nick, were also excellent cooks, and their crowning glory was “Death by sugar” pudding, which had so much sugar and chocolate and sweet stuff in it, it could have quite easily given a person diabetes…

I got a hell of a lot out of this phase, not so much because of what we did, so much as the people I was with. Especially Merv and Nick, who not only were funny but also challenged me in ways that I hadn’t been challenged before on the expedition.
I think I learned a lot from my time there and became a better person because of it.

Oh yeah, one other thing from Danum…the camp that time forgot…







Me, Merv and Nick had gone on a jungle run on the last day to survey all the work on the trail we had done. At the end of the trail was this old abandoned camp where previous Raleigh expeditions had been before, as well as other it had seemed. There was still lil things like books and stoves left behind…like a ghost town…creepy, yet fascinating.


Well, after that we headed back to Kota Kinabalu (after stopping the night in Bata Puteh, stuffing my face full of food and then puking it all up again five seconds later…) and for the closing ceremony and final beach party.

The closing ceremony was held at a fish restaurant, which was ironic cuz a lot of people didn’t like fish…

And the slideshow was crap cuz the expedition photographer didn’t take a good enogh range of photos and set the whole thing to shoddy music, but the speech by one of the venturers, a friend of mine called Tristan was very good. Jane, my lil Malaysian friend who had to suffer my presence for the entire expedition, also did a speech in both English and Malay! Kudos to her. And I tried my hand at the Bamboo dance again in front of everyone, and did pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

My group, Alpha 4, also managed to win the Skit competition by some bizarre stroke of luck, with our impressions of Raleigh staff members, and so we won free pizza when we went to Kota Kinabalu on one of the last days. Yummy.

The last full day was spent at a beach resort, and everyone just chilled hard core.
We were staying in this lodge here…



Except for these two…



It was a prize somebody had bid for in an auction of promises we held to help raise money for the Malaysian venturers. ^^;

The beach party was fantastic. We played in the sea, we had a barbeque, we sat on the beach, we talked about our time and experiences, we had music…it was a great end to a great trip.





And now I will finish up with some pictures of the really cool people I made friends with on the trip. Theres a few people missing, but these are the people I wanna shout out to.



Merv, my fav Project Manager, who taught me a lot, but kept me motivated and smiling too.



Mike, a really nice guy, bit of a BSer. I got on really well with him.



Reed from Colorado. Awesome guy, funny as hell.



Paul…a bit quiet and reserved, yet highly sarcastic and sadistic…interesting fella.



Justin: really friendly guy from Kula Lumpur. He did a hella lotta translating for us, so kudos to him.



Kate: nice enough.



Sian: insanely happy, especially in the mornings when we were all zombified.



Rob and Phil. Probably by two bestest mates on the trip. Even though his name was also Phil…like mine…



Zoe. A little strange. And a little vertically challenged. But a good friend.



Sam. A bit rough, but a nice guy, hard as nails.



Diana from Scotland. Got scared easy, but strong willed, and got on well with most people.



Peter. A genuinely nice guy although we used to get on each others nerves occasionally.



Loz. This guy would eat anything and everything. Including the really gross stuff like the sardines and the veggie chop suey. Makes me wanna puke just thinking about it…



Martyn. A bit of a moaner but a really good friend on the first phase.



Jenna and Carrie-Anne. i met both of them way back in December and still periodically get emails from Carrie-anne. great girls.



Carmel. down to earth and practical, kept everyone focused but managed to do it without being a killjoy. a good leader when it was her turn.



Jane, Jane, Jane…bless her little heart. She had to put up with me for the ENTIRE expedition. Towards the end things were a little…strained…but she was still willing to smile for the camera. A really cool Malaysian.



Katie. Along with the other Phil and Rob, probably one of my best friends from the trip. A really great girl. ^-^

Also shout out to: Phillipa, another mike, Tristan and John. Thanks guys, you were all great.
And also thanks to Collin, Rosie, Dave, Serena and Nick for being great PMs.
And to people like Johns from Kampung Rita, and Melvyn from Danum Valley. And Amanda, who taught me to SCUBA!! ^^ thanks guys.

And that’s it. Id like to leave you with the last entry in my diary I kept for the trip.

“I'm at a loss for words to try and convey the thoughts and feelings I'm having at the moment. I definitely feel I’ve come out the other side of this exhibition a different person, hopefully a better person with the skills to accomplish what I want in life and to be better at the things I normally do. I come back to England with a slightly altered view on life, with a better understanding of myself, a new drive to do stuff and a whole lot more hair then I started with!!
It’s been one helluva few months and if I think of anything more to describe my experiences, I will jot them down in this journal.
But for now, as the old cliché goes: its been one hell of a rollercoaster.
And in the words of the immortal Green Day:

“It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life.”

Yes. Yes I did.”


…


…


Thank you my friends for sharing my Malaysian experiences with me. If you ever get the chance to do something similar, I would thoroughly recommend it.

Welp, I'm going to go to bed. Its 3AM here and Midori wants to go to sleep.
Ciao my friends.

And Happy 18th Birthday Chrissy.

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Tuesday, June 20, 2006

i should have figured yesterday was gonna be a bad day...
hey guys and gals...mostly gals i think...go figure...


i shall be updating with the final part of my Malaysian adventures tomorrow, but today i just figured i'd tell you how my life is proceeding.

well, actually im just going to tell you aout yesterday since practially nothing happened last week. my brother was home for the weekend, and there was fathers day. thats about it.

do you ever get signs that a day is going to turn out bad? like you wake up and your alarm clock is broken? and you just figure "thats a bad sign...may as well stay in bed" ? bed probably would have been the safest place for me yesterday. no, my alarm clock wasnt broken (in fact it wasnt even switched on) but starting the day by killing yourself probably is a good indicator that it isnt worth even getting out of bed.

yes, killing myself...let me elaborate...

okay, first off, yes it was just a dream, but it was really really vivid...like really realistic.
the funny thing is now i cant even remember half the details, but i can remember the last minute of it. basically something really bad was happening and the only way the situation could be saved was if i killed myself. like, i would come back as a ghost or a spirit or something and be able to save the day, i cant remember. so there was me and this other girl (i dont know who it was) and time was running out and so i had the knife in my hand and we both knew i had to do it, but i, obviously, was a bit nervous and a little bit hesitant about killing myself. and i was all like "but if i kill myself, its a mortal sin, so i'll go straight to hell...but im doing it as a self sacrifice to benefit everyone, and self sacrifice is an automatic entry to heaven..." and i was all uhm-ing and ah-ing about it, and finally just decided to just do it. i told this girl "see ya later" then held the knife over my chest. and i was really scared shitless and really didnt want to do it, but felt like i had no choice, so i put the point of the knife against my chest, whispered "goodbye Luna" (i know, i know) and then plunged my knife through my chest...and then everything went dark slowly...and i woke up. but it was so realistic that i kept checking my chest to make sure i hadnt actually stabbed myself...it kinda freaked me out a little.

anyway, after that i should just have left monday as a write off and lazed about all day, but i had stuff i needed to do, so i went up to London. I returned the "Grave of the Fireflies" DVD i had borrowed, and i managed to pick up Getbackers" DVD vol 7 which i've been waiting to get for a while now. they've only just released it.
i also went to the armed forces recruting office to speak to the RAF person about joining up and get some details how to go about it. but the RAF person wasnt there so they told me they'd call me and arrange to meet another day. so that was a half wasted trip up to London.

then i came home, did some stuff that i had to do, then went out again to cadets. next week we have our annual awards evening, and we had to practise all our routines and stuff. i've got to get the band ready for it, and although they can play the stuff (more-or-less) they havnt had much practise playing whilst marching at the same time. and we have had like NO time to practise the routine cuz all the officers wanted to run through the entire sequence several times over, so we had to go with the rest of the squadron and practise the whole squadron movement sequence, and then they kept changing it, so we didnt get any break, we didnt get any chance to practise, and i was just generally getting pissed off with everything. they also expect us to be there tomorrow to clean our uniform and again on Sunday, cuz we have the Drill Competition which is compulsary, but i think i might just "forget" about it, then next monday is the awards night. AAAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!

so yeah, that was my monday. it sucked. so today, im taking it easy, gonna write up tomorrows post, gonna do a special comic for a special friend, and just generally chill.

adios amigos. see ya tomorrow.
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

eh, why not...?
hey, tis me updating again. just updating you on recent developments in the life of Darke, as well as a few things i forgot last time. ^^;

h'okay, first off snorkelling on sunday was great. the water was cold but not excessively so, and besides, i had my wetsuit. there was a hella lotta jellyfish though. but it wasnt too bad. we got to dive around wrecks of cars and helicopters and stuff. teh awesome.

My grandads birthday went ok too, although it was really packed at his little house with my cousins and people from my dads side. a little too packed for me, i dont really like family functions. i did enjoy the cake though...

Monday I went up to London to pick up the Grave of Fireflies DVD from my brothers colleague. Its funny though, cuz technically he's not allowed to lend it out, so therefore, im not supposed to have it at all. im going to have to return it soon. its was quite funny though, he made me meet him in the lil cafe in the theatre and passed the DVD over secretly, with it all wrapped in an envelope, keeping it all hush-hush. I felt like a total secret agent/spy. lol

The movie itself is very good, but very sad. i would recommend this to older Studio Ghlibli fans, its quite different from the brighter fantasy worlds of movies like My neighbour Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Howls Moving Castle etc. its quite a gritty and realistic war film depicting life for a young japanese boy and girl in End of War Japan, with all the bombing raids and stuff.

i also had to restrain my debit card a few times up London (no excessive purchasing of anime until i get another job) but i did pick up Gundam SEED novel vol 2, which covers the segment where the Archangel crew are stuck in the desert. its one of my fav segments.
the other week my resolve finally broke, and i bought the Ghost in the Shell manga by Shirow Masamune. Its quite expensive, toting a £20 ($36 US dollars as of today) price tag, but worth it. there a parallels within the manga that draw to the GITS movie, but also alot of stroies that you also see cropping up in Stand Alone Complex and 2nd Gig. Masamune's art style is quite radically different from the slick art styles of the various animated features, and is often quite funny at times. beware though, this title also mounts a Parental Advisory sticker and also contains the same deep and introspective philosophical issues as the anime, as well as a high load of technical terminology and complicated vocabulary.

and yesterday i went to X-men: The Last Stand. it wasnt as good as the first two X-movies, but had enough good stuff in it to keep me placated. it is a good film, but there were probably a few things they could have done a lot better. ah well.

in other news, my older brother has finally landed himself a touring gig. He's performing in a stage tour of Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories" which we used to listen to as kids. its great to see him in a paid acting job, and hope he gets on well. he's currently in rehearsals and having a blast by all accounts, and he starts the tour in about a month or two. he'll be touring the west country and Wales (i live in the south east).

Fathers Day on SUNDAY. must remember to get stiff sorted for that. ^^; eh heh...

finally... *HUGE CHEER* ^^; i know, gomen.
tonight i have been invited to attend a Raleigh International Information evening as an EX-Venturer to talk to prospective candidates about my experiences in Malaysia. it should be a lot of fun. must remember to accentuate the good points and try to leave out the bad stuff. (i mustmustmust post phase 3 online soon. my bad...)

and thats the news for today.
and now we have a weather report.

Chibi Darke: Well Darke, its been baking hot here in the South East of England recently, but its finally broke and we're getting regular showers of rain, with the possibility of thunderstorms. Saturday is going to be a scorcher though, so make sure you're well protected kids.

Darke: psst...Most of our viewers are from America or overseas... the UK forecast is no good for them.

Chibi Darke: *rummages through maps* i dont have any american weather maps. oh well. if you want the weather for your local area, consult the weather channel, or look out the window. its right there. ^^

Darke: -_- not helping.

oh yeah, also wanna do a shout out. if ya can spare the time, could ya pop over and visit Ryuu-Kiba?
not only is she the lil sister of the totally awesome Cee-Kari, she's just started out and i wanna pester her. just tell her that The Scrawny British Guy sent ya, and told you to *poke* her. and dont let her kinda werid and freaky obsession of Axel from KH2 scare the living crap out of you. kk. thanks folks.

well thats it from me today. no comic or photos or anything. Gomen. again.

welp, have a good week and remember:

if at first you dont succeed, whine to your parents and friends.

ciao.
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